Amazing Caregivers and Kids!

I just wanted to say a few words about our amazing kids and their fabulous caregivers. We truly could NOT have made this trip to Liberia without the cooperation of our kids and the wonderful care of some very amazing ladies!! I know that it was difficult for the kids to have both their mom and dad be away for 10 days, but they handled it with grace, and we are so proud of them!

My mom, Shirley Schasse, flew all the way from Seattle to stay with our kids for the 10 days that we were away. She did everything from feeding them, transporting them to their various activities, playing with them, loving on them, and even helping Bryant decorate his pumpkin for the Pumpkin Museum at school (that's Mike from Monsters Inc., cute, eh?).


And there were the nurses who helped with Bri's care...Susan Rumbelow did the majority of Bri's care while we were away. She even spent 7 nights at our house with Brianne.

Another dear nurse, Marquita Larson spent the other 2 nights. And then there were the nurses who covered the weekend shifts, Evelyn Moore and Cindy McEnturff.

We have truly been blessed with some amazing women to help us, and we just want to publicly thank them for their sacrifice on our behalf. Thank you! Thank you!!

Tenegar Community Development

We were privileged to be able to visit the village of Tenegar, Liberia. This village has been the focus of the Community Development teams on the Africa Mercy. The Liberian Pres. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf grew up in a village nearby, and asked the Mercy Ships teams if they would focus on this village during their most recent 10-month Outreach to Liberia. We were so impressed to see what has been done here.

The village once had a medical clinic operating here before the rebels destroyed it during the war. All that was left was the shell of the building with trees growing through the floor. The construction team comprised primarily of Liberian day workers tore down the old building, and constructed this amazing new clinic/hospital. They dug a clean well, and are in the process of digging latrines back behind the clinic.

Just across from the clinic is where the Agriculture dept. has focused their efforts. Not only has there been an amazing plantain farm planted and gorgeous garden to provide food for the entire village (as well as provide surplus for them to sell), but there also has been a large amount of time spent on training. Training has been focused on overcoming traditional "slash and burn" practices (that depletes soil fertility) and replacing it with organic methods and sustainable practices to improve nutrition.


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The final project that is nearing completion is the construction of a chicken coop to provide eggs and meat for the villagers. It is being built with mud, the same way that the people's homes are built in this area.

Each part of this project has involved the work of the villagers alongside the Africa Mercy crew. As the saying goes, "Give a poor man a fish and feed him for a day...teach a poor man to fish and feed him for a lifetime." The work that has been done here will live on long after the Africa Mercy has sailed away from the port of Monrovia, Liberia. What a blessing it was for me to see first-hand the "Sustainable Community Development" that has taken place in Tenegar, Liberia.

I Left Part of My Heart in Africa!

OK, that's not really part of my heart. It's a parotid gland tumor, but it got your attention, didn't it? As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was hoping to get down to the Operating Rooms on the Africa Mercy, and as you can see, I did. I am so glad that I did. Not only were the surgeries I observed interesting, but I am continuously amazed at how God can bring people together from so many different backgrounds to form a "team". In the above picture, there is a surgeon from England (who is Korean I think?) a nurse anesthetist from Germany, an OR asst. from Canada, a scrub nurse from America, etc...This "team" worked so well together, and it truly was a pleasure to be with them for an afternoon.


This dear lady's tumor is benign, but left untreated, it would have eventually killed her. As the tumor grew, it took up more of the space for her airway, and would eventually have suffocated her. This tumor started as a little lump on her parotid gland, and had been growing for 7 years. In Western countries, as soon as we notice a lump, we usually make an appointment to see a doctor. But in developing nations, such as Liberia,where they have little or no access to health care (and even if they do, they usually cannot afford it) they just have to watch it grow. Thankfully, the Lord sent a Mercy Ship to Monrovia, Liberia to save her life. It's every person's individual story that makes the ministry of Mercy Ships still so amazing to me after 20 years!!

Re-Java-nate the Crew!

One of the fun things that we were able to do in travelling to the Africa Mercy was present a gift to the crew in the form of coffee. You gotta love that! The staff at the International Operations Center (IOC) here in East TX took up an offering to provide a FREE beverage at the Starbucks Cafe for every crew member on board. As they are just weeks away from finishing their Outreach to Liberia, we wanted to give the crew a boost, and let them know that we appreciate them. We also took a poster signed with many encouragements from the staff at the IOC, and it was posted outside the Chaplains' office.